Happy birthday to you, darling Kate.

Today’s the birthday of Sweetheart Vivienne’s and my oldest daughter: darling Kate. When I sat down to write today’s post, I began by looking at my posts for her 2009 [1] and 2008 [2] birthdays. For her birthday today I can’t write anything truer and more heartfelt. So I’m not even going to try. Instead I’m writing about another topic near to my heart – but of course nowhere near as near, and dear, as darling Kate is: Goats. Over the 9-10 years I’ve been a goat farmer, I’ve become a fan of their inquisitiveness and playfulness. And the strong maternal instinct of nanny mothers. So I couldn’t resist relaying this treehugger story [3]. How impressive’s that, eh. I like the embedded quote from Peter Bosshard: that nature overcomes mankind’s often destructive engineering accomplishments. I reckon that’s so. Nature has a massive task in front of her. However I predict she’ll prevail over all of mankind’s stupidity. Eventually. This man-nature thing brings me back to my review of Dog Boy two days ago [4]. Darling Kate loving that book so much she loaned me her copy, is a fatherhood badge of honour that I wear proudly. I love and admire much about this loving, thoughtful, considerate and concerned person. But her successful determination to live as close as she can to nature, is also high on my list of reasons. Happy birthday to you, Kate: our oldest kid.